Work-related fatal injuries hit 144 in 2017/1810 July 2018

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has released its provisional annual data for work-related fatal injuries, showing that 144 workers were fatally injured between April 2017 and March 2018 (a rate of 0.45 per 100,000 workers).

Although this represents an increase of nine fatalities from 2016/17, there has been a long-term reduction in the number of fatalities since 1981 and the number has remained broadly level in recent years.

HSE chair Martin Temple explains: “Despite the fact that Britain’s health and safety record is the envy of much of the world, the increase in the number of workers fatally injured is clearly a source of concern.

“Published in the same week as the 30th anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster, the figures serve as a reminder of why health and safety is so important and that we must not become complacent as we continue on our mission to prevent all forms of injury, death and ill health at work.”

The figures also show how fatal injuries are spread across the different industrial sectors.

According to the HSE, there were 38 fatal injuries to construction workers and 29 fatal injuries to agricultural workers. Meanwhile, 12 fatal injuries happened to waste and recycling workers and 15 fatal injuries were recorded in both the manufacturing and the transport and storage sectors.

The data also reveals that the three most common causes of fatal injuries continue to be due to; workers falling from height (35), being struck by a moving vehicle (26) and being struck by a moving object (23), accounting for nearly 60% of fatal injuries in 2017/18.

The new figures also highlight the risks to older workers, with 40% of fatal injuries in 2017/18 happening to workers aged 60 or over, even though such workers made up only around 10% of the workforce.

In addition, there were 100 members of the public fatally injured in incidents connected to work in 2017/18 with just over half of these fatalities occurring on railways.

MesotheliomaSeparate figures from the HSE also show the number of people known to have died from the asbestos-related cancer, mesothelioma, in 2016.

Mesothelioma, contracted through past exposure to asbestos and one of the few work-related diseases where deaths can be counted directly, killed 2,595 in Great Britain in 2016.

The current figures are largely a consequence of occupational asbestos exposures that occurred before 1980.

The HSE says that annual deaths are expected to remain broadly at current levels for the rest of the decade before beginning to decline.

A fuller assessment of work related ill-health and injuries, drawing on HSE’s full range of data sources, will be provided as part of the annual Health and Safety Statistics release on 31 October 2018.